Alaska Parents, Advocates, Educators File School Funding
Lawsuit Against the State
On August 9, 2004, a group of parents, along with two
school districts, a nonprofit advocacy group, and the
statewide teachers' union, filed a lawsuit against the
state of Alaska alleging that the state's education
funding is inadequate and inequitable. Plaintiffs' Complaint
in Moore v. State, asks the court to order the state
to determine the cost of providing a constitutionally
adequate education, and then fund that education accordingly.
Plaintiffs' Complaint
"We charge that funding for Alaska's children and
its schools is unconstitutional," said Kim Langton,
superintendent in the Kuspuk School District and chair
of the Citizens for the Educational Advancement of Alaska's
Children, a nonprofit organization that in 1999 filed
Kasayulie
v. State of Alaska, which challenged the state's
capital funding for school facilities.
Moore vs. State of Alaska charges that the current
school finance system violates Alaska's constitution
for two reasons:
1) The state does not invest enough money in its schools
to provide an adequate education for all students; and
2) The money the state does provide, it distributes
unfairly.
More specifically, plaintiffs Complaint claims that
inadequate funding results in: high teacher turnover;
many schools that are unable to offer high school math
and science courses; high percentages of schools without
counselors, nurses, social workers and access to psychologists;
and many schools lacking textbooks, libraries and teaching
supplies. Plaintiffs also assert that the schools educating
the most low-income and minority children are the ones
with the greatest resource deficits, and that these
deficits cause students in these schools to score below
minimum standards of achievement.
NCLB
Moreover, the Moore complaint, like those in other recent
school funding cases, asserts that the federal "No
Child Left Behind" Act (NCLB) and the state's recent
implementation of that new law imposes certain proficiency
requirements on schools and districts. Only "42
percent of the schools" and only "13 of the
state's 55 school districts" met these requirements,
according to the complaint, because "the state
has failed and continues to fail to fund the resources
needed to achieve these expectations."
Prepared by Melissa Mangino, August
11, 2004
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